Lisa Reagan

TERG 3703

4/9/19

Running Record and Comprehension Analysis for Benchmark

The Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System was administered to Kaliyah E.

to find her independent, instructional, and frustration levels. It was administered three times.

Kaliyah just turned nine years old in the beginning of January. She is in the third grade at Volney

Rogers Elementary School. The assessment was given through running record, in addition to, the

comprehension conversation that is given after the text was read.

The first benchmark assessment was administered on March 1st, 2019. The text that was

used is called The Sleepover Party. This text is a level H, which was suggested based off of the

Fountas and Pinnell Word List assessment. Kaliyah’s accuracy percentage for this text was 96%,

to be exact, Kaliyah had 11 miscues. This means that this text was not very difficult for this

student. Kaliyah’s self-correction ratio was 1:5, meaning that she has one self-correction per five

errors. This shows that Kaliyah was able to recognize some of her errors, correcting them if able

to decipher that an error was made. Kaliyah’s fluency rating was scored as 2 out of 3. This means

that Kaliyah read in three to four-word phrases and showed some expression in her interpretation

of the text. It seemed that she showed some smoothness in her fluency, only being held back by

unknown words. Some examples of the miscues that were made are the word was as “saw,”

asked as “said,” and Mugsy as “Muzzy.” It appears that the word was as “saw” was a visual

miscue, as both words have the same letters in a different order. It seems that the word asked as

“said” was a syntax miscue seeing that she substituted a verb for a verb. The name Mugsy

pronounced as “Muzzy” shows that she had a visual miscue, leaving out the /g/ sound.
 Kaliyah received a score of 6 out of 7 for the comprehension conversation, meaning that

she had excellent comprehension. Kaliyah seemed to comprehend the story very well, leaving

out just a few key details from the beginning of the story. Kaliyah had a hard time identifying the

problem in the story. She stated, “Jim was invited to his friend’s house where he was worried his

mom packed his toy.” When in the story, Jim didn’t know if he should take Mugsy to the

sleepover then later he was happy to find that his mom put it in his backpack. Kaliyah scored an

additional point for identifying that the page where Jim’s mom put Mugsy in the bag and

explaining it in ample detail. The first assessment showed that that a level H reading is in

Kaliyah’s independent level, meaning that we would have to move on to the next level.

The second benchmark assessment was administered on March 11th, 2019. The text that

was used is called The Best Cat, which is a level I on the Fountas and Pinnell scale. Kaliyah’s

accuracy rate was 97% percent, with only seven miscues throughout the reading. This means that

Kaliyah’s accuracy rate actually went up with a higher leveled text. Her self-correction ratio

remains 1:5, meaning she self corrects one time for every five miscues that were made. Kaliyah’s

fluency score also remained at a 2 out of 3, meaning that she continued to use three to four word

phrase groups, had some smoothness, and appropriate pausing. It seemed that her miscues were

the only thing holding her back from receiving all of the points for fluency. Some examples of

the miscues made by Kaliyah are “mom” for mother, “when” for then, and “furry” for fluffy. It

seems that the miscue of “mom” for mother was a syntax miscue, substituting a noun for a noun.

It appears that the miscue of “when” for then was a visual miscue, as the words have similar

letters with a different beginning sound. It also seems that the miscue of “furry” for fluffy was

most likely a visual miscue because they have the same beginning and ending letters.
 Kaliyah’s score on the comprehension conversation was a 6 out of 7, meaning that she

had excellent comprehension for this text. She seemed to comprehend the story but struggled to

provide all of the desired details for one of the questions provided. When asked how Spencer felt

when he couldn’t find a cat he wanted, she took a moment to think about the response. She

explained that he wanted a cat and he was sad until the end of the story, but she didn’t explain

this answer in further detail that he couldn’t find the right cat. When asked to look at page 3 of

the text, she appeared to have difficulty explaining how the author and illustrator showed how

badly Spencer wanted a cat. After analyzing the text further, Kaliyah noticed that the text said,

“He wanted a cat more than anything in the world” and that the picture showed him dreaming of

the perfect cat. This showed that Kaliyah was able to analyze what the author and illustrator

intended for the reader. The second assessment revealed that a level I reading is also in Kaliyah’s

independent level as she had 97% accuracy and excellent comprehension.

The third benchmark assessment was administered on March 25th, 2019. The text Edwin’s

Haircut was used, which is a level K on the Fountas and Pinnell scale. Since she did very well on

the first two assessments, the decision was made to skip level J. Kaliyah’s accuracy rate on this

reading was 95%, with 12 miscues in total. This means that Kaliyah’s accuracy rate went down

2% from the last benchmark, but it is the same rate as the first benchmark. Kaliyah’s self-

correction ratio remained 1:5, meaning that she self corrects one in every five miscues. Kaliyah’s

fluency rating remained as 2 out of 3, meaning that she continued to read in three to four-word

phrases and showed some smoothness. Examples of her miscues are “stuff” for Ruff, “mistaken”

for mixed, and “of” for off. The miscue of “stuff” for Ruff appears to be a visual miscue, as the

words both have /uff/. “Mistaken” for mixed seems to be a visual miscue as the words begin with
the same two letters. The miscue of “of” for off seems to be a visual miscue as well, as the words

appear to be very similar.

Kaliyah received a score of 4 out of 7 for the comprehension conversation. This means

that Kaliyah had limited comprehension of the text. Kaliyah scored 2 out of 3 for both sections of

the comprehension section. For example, when asked what happened at the end of the story,

Kaliyah said “Edwin had to get a haircut from a barber.” The text stated that next time Edwin got

a haircut he would go to a barber, but he did not go to a barber in the story. When asked what

kind of kid Edwin was, Kaliyah said “he was nice.” The answer was searching for something

more detailed to explain that he didn’t care if he was teased for wearing a wig. In addition to this,

Kaliyah also did very well on other questions. For example, she was able to recall that the

problem in the story was solved by Edwin wearing a wig. Overall, the third assessment showed

that her instructional level was found to be at level K due to 95% accuracy, but limited

comprehension of the text.

Kaliyah showed that she had a great accuracy rate on each benchmark. Her frustration

level was not found, but her independent and instructional levels were through the three

benchmarks. It seems that Kaliyah has a steady ratio of 1:5 for self-corrections. Her fluency

remained at a 2 out of 3 throughout each assessment, showing that she indicates some

smoothness in her oral reading. She used mostly appropriate stress throughout, in addition to

using three to four-word phrase groups while reading. Kaliyah seems to have great

comprehension skills while reading at her independent level but struggles to comprehend all of

the details while at her instructional level. Kaliyah should be reading at a level K for her

instructional level due to comprehension of more difficult texts.